I take a lot of photos. I’d say too many but I don’t think you can take too many. We’re a far cry from the days when you took the picture and had to be careful you didn’t waste the film or the plate or whatever you were using. I love all photos, posed or candid, although I admit to loving the random moments we catch best.
I’ve got a lot of old family pictures, collected from my grandparents and my parents. I was looking at some of them recently and it crossed my mind that I wasn’t sure who took them. Who captured this special moment, what were they thinking? I can guess at some of them because of the setting. It opened up a whole new look at people I knew, gave them a new dimension to think of them behind the camera, catching this moment.
Here’s what I mean…
Who took these photos of my great grandfather and great grandmother? Who had a camera on that farm? Who wanted to capture him chopping wood or her feeding the chickens?
Who took this picture of my father? I know they hired professionals sometimes, but…
I’m guessing my grandfather took this one of his parents with his children. I never saw my grandfather with a camera, so this is a revelation.
This one of my great-grandmother with my mother and her brothers is a mystery. My grandfather had already died when this was taken, so who took it? I don’t think my grandmother had a camera then.
Did my grandmother or one of my uncles take this of my mother at her high school graduation? Who would she pose for?
I know my father took this one of me as a baby…
He must have taken this one too and it touches my heart that he captured this moment.
And I guess he took this one of his father with my brother and me…
My mother always said she didn’t like photos, but I bet she took this one…
I know how I feel behind a camera and I know what I’m looking for, the moments I’m trying to capture. I know when I get a picture that has caught a look we all know. Now I’m thinking of all the members of my family who went before me. The photos they took, the ones they kept teach me a lot. I feel even more of a connection with them through these photos. I hope I’m passing that down to my children and my grandchildren and that they can feel those same connections. There is something about looking through a lens…
Confetti Thoughts 